Post Brexit (01/Jan/2021) postage issues between EU and UK

£150 shipped vs. 809.00 Zlotych shipped = ~151.78 British Pounds

So I think I answered my own question here. It'll be cheaper to send to Poland and collect than send to UK (and less bullshit waiting with customs).

Correct, and don't forget sending to the UK is even more expensive as the courier usually takes a flat fee (i.e. £12 for Parcelforce) for the luxury of processing it.

Yeah, those arseholes have fucked me with that before. Ta.

I've just sold my Omnium cargo bike and I'm ordering a new cargo frameset from Germany....

Am I mad in thinking it would be easier to just go pick it up?

Shipping is 277 euros. They will sell me the frmae minus the VAT so I will pay that here, plus import duty of 4% (I think).

Whar else might I get stung with?

Easier? Driving to Germany doesn't sound easier than waiting. Guess it depends if you time rich vs cash rich. You could maybe find someone coming over from Germany to bring it and try to dodge the taxes but depends if you know anyone in Germany who wants that hassle.
Have a look at the duty calculator I used on the other page.

I'm half tempted to fly there and ride it home.

That implies you have the time. Sounds like a novel approach. Certainly be a good shakedown ride! But you bought a frameset - you would build it over there?

Anyone bought from bikecomponents.de (or Bike24, bikediscount etc) recently and can tell me what the likelyhood of avoiding taxes and fees are?

I was thinking stuff looked cheap on bikecomponents.de then noticed they won't ship to uk for orders under £165 so I think the reason it looks cheap is because there's no vat right?

I've just ordered a hub from Bikeinn in Spain and it was about £120 so will be interesting to see if I get away with it.

Fwiw, I'm looking at these places because they have better range of options than anywhere in the UK, not simply to try and get cheapest price.

I know is a long shot but I didn't think about it before. I am selling 2 bikes and I am flying to London on wed 9th so I could take them with me and avoid extra costs.
Pinarello Banesto 56cm Oria ML25 Chorus 8s group Zonda wheels asking for 850£
Pinarello Montello 53 cm Columbus - Super Record asking for 1600£
Scapin 54 Columbus 1st gen Chorus group 650£

I give it a go
Thanks:)

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Anyone posted anything to Europe recently? Someone's asking for a wheelset to be posted to France and wondering if there's any hiccups I should anticipate.

I've posted a few things to the EU, most recently a group set to Ireland. I used Parcel2Go or ParcelHero.
You just enter in the details and it creates all the labels that you need to print and attach to the parcel. It was very simple and there weren't any issues or delays.

Thanks for the prompt reply. Any taxes?

Well... It depends on your moral stance on this.
The Parcel2Go site gave me the option to pre-pay the taxes so that it sails through straight to the buyer. Pre-paying them apparently results in less taxes compared to them being paid at the delivery end.

I sold the group set to someone on the forum who I took a punt on being trustworthy etc.
I declared the value very low (£55) when the group set was worth £600. I opted to pre-pay the taxes for the buyer which worked out at £18ish from memory. It went straight through the to buyer with no additional taxes to pay.
The problem with this is that I couldn't insure the parcel to its full £600 value. You can only insure it at the declared value.

Two other things I've sent were to randoms in Europe, I didn't pre-pay the taxes but the buyers understood they would likely pay taxes.
Ultimately the taxes due are your buyers responsibility.

These places in the that are doing the minimum £160 odd spend for uk shipping, they aren't charging UK vat so I'm 100% getting stung for that right? Plus, probably, a handling fee and anything else?

Not sure where the best place to post this question is, but is there any way to pay import taxes myself as a recipient of a parcel from overseas so I don’t get stuffed by FedEx handling/clearance/disbursement charges?